UC Berkeley could lose up to $38 million if Brown’s tax hike not approved

UC Berkeley could lose up to $38 million as part of a larger potential cut to theUniversity of California if voters do not approve a tax measure in November, according to minutes from the Jan. 17 campus Council of Deans meeting.

The tax measure, proposed byGov. Jerry Brown, would temporarily raise income taxes on wealthy Californians and the state sales tax. If it does not pass, the entire UC will be dealt a$200 million cut — of which the campus’ share would be about $36-38 million, according to the council minutes.

According to the minutes, the campus will “try to absorb the cut, rather than pass it through to the units.”

Campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore said in an email that “the university is still reviewing this issue.”

Brown’s budget also puts $90 million into the UC’s pension fund, which, according the minutes, would “largely offset” a previous$100 million cut dealt to the university in December. The campus’ share of that cut — which brought the total state budget cuts to $750 million for the current fiscal year — will be about $16-18 million annually beginning in fiscal year 2012-13, according to the minutes.

Additionally, the campus’s budget situation was deemed “good overall” due to savings generated by the campus cost-cutting Operational Excellence initiative, more revenue from out-of-state and international tuition and “successful fundraising,” the minutes state.

In February, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer is scheduled to send out a letter detailing the new budget process that was created by the initiative. The new budget and financial planning system — Cal Planning — features analytic tools, forecasting and multi-year planning capabilities and will enable information sharing between departments.

Maybe if we starve the beast of money, they’ll finally realize that ethnic studies (and all its leftist ilk) is a waste of money. Until Cal eliminates blatant waste such as ethnic studies, I’m going to oppose anything that gives Cal more funding.